RPGamer - Letters for November 22, 2000

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Break on through to the other side!

Googleshng - November 22 '00- 2:00 Eastern Standard Time

Yipee! I finally got through the dark rift in SoA! I did not however get hints from you people. Only one of you it seems has SoA and was farther than me. Of course he was far enough to have fuzzy memories of this particular place. Still, everyone who has SoA, go get yourself a cookie! Now then, column time.

Badgers? Badgers?!?

Ask Google
We don't need no stinking badgers!

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In the DC:

Skies of Arcadia
Long game

Cthulu for President!

Dear Google,

To answer your question about Cthulhu being born in the US , the answer is: Yes and no. Cthulhu is as old as time itself , and thus can be said to be born 'on US soil' , or to be more precise the matter that latter became US soil. Which brings me to my second point: The US has existed since the Revolutionary War. Cthulhu has existed noticably longer. So can one that predates the US qualify for president under those conditions. I say yes , because it's about time we have a daemonic Eldar God in charge of this country. Also , I'm considering getting a DC , but other than Shenmue and Skies of Arcadia , what really good RPGs does it have? (I have a policy of not playing anything that rates under 'really good' , because there is enough high quality stuff out there to make it just not worth it to play anything less)

-Freezer

Googleshng:
Can't argue with that! Let's elect him ri- wait a sec. Why would we want a hideous monster that will drive us all insane and kill us for president again?

Percentages

Two things:

1) FROG BLAST THE VENT CORE

2) I'm curious about something and, unfortunately, I don't have the time to do the research required. Perhaps, however, one of your readers both shares my curiosity and has time to do the research. So I pose the following question:

What is the approximate percentage of known RPGs that fit the following description:

"Boy from small town / village / farm dreams of becoming a hero. Together with a band of friends, he goes out into the world. They get caught up in a struggle to save the world from an impending evil."

Take care,

-Nij

Googleshng:
Ooh, that dreams of becoming a hero bit makes it a narrow little sliver. There's everything by Game Arts, arguably a few Dragon Warriors, maybe an FF or two, I suppose two or three of the Zeldas, good chunks of the SaGa and SD series, maybe a couple Shinings and Ys games. It's under 10% though. More often than not, the hero just gets swept up into events by looking to save/avenge a friend/family member, or gets kicked out of their tiny home town after being made the scapecoat for a monster attack/complete destruction of town. Oh, and then there's the special agent whose mission goes awry angle. Personally, I prefer vengence. You get that whole "My name is Indigo Mantoya, you killed my father, prepare to die" thing going. 8)

Puppetmasters

I was waiting outside EB when it opened. . . I bought it. . . two copies, of course. I then sat down. And beat it. This is the first time I've stood up. I thought I'd write you before I passed out from dehydration and lack of sleep and food. . . I need to make sure to pass out on the toilet while I'm at it. . .

Seriously, though, I'm only a few hours into it and I'm really enjoying it. I still think the card game is over-rated, but maybe that's just my backlash for really disliking FF8.

Question: I may have missed it somewhere in the instruction book, but why is there a controller icon in the upper right portion of my screen flashing the number 1 at me?

Must sleep, so that I can go to work and still be awake to play FF9 when I get home. . .

Onewing

quote while playing: "Dude! Vivi got pissed!"

Googleshng:
Simply put, FF9 brings back the ability to let a second person control a character or two or three.

Death of a console

Hi, Goog!

I'll be getting a copy of FF9 any day now ( what?! you haven't got it yet?! ) as I live in Sweden and have to get mine through an importer. But after I finish that, what then? I haven't got enough money to buy neither a dreamcast nor a PS2, so I'll have to get games for ye olde PSX. Now, help me, what have I got to look forward to? Tales of Eternia, Arc the Lad Collection, Breath of Fire IV or maybe Persona 2? And after that, is it all going to end on the PSX? Please, help me!!!

Ephazer

Googleshng:
Well, yeah, pretty much. There's a few other games which may or may not come out here (like Khamrai) but other than that, everyone seems to be finished with their big PSX projects.

Random battles

Quick question, it came up as I was playing FF9 (currently in the ice cavern- yeah I know I'm slow, I just got is sunday)

When Square and other developers make RPGs, how do they determine when the random battles pop up. Is there an invisible grid in the walking area that you step on a block its initiated? or is it proportionate to the amount of steps you take.

thanks

Googleshng:
It varies from game to game. Some games roll a die ever step you take to see if you get in a fight. Some roll a die for how many steps you can take before you get in a fight. Those are pretty much the only two schools on it, except for monsters appearing on the map, but that's a different story.

Ratings

First off, great job so far. keep it up. I just read an interview with Dr. David Walsh, head of the National Institute on Media and the Family. You might know them as the ones who put those little ratings on the videogames. In the interview he told how they arrive at the ratings. In short, they have a pool of parents "trained" as raters. They have one gamer on their staff who plays the games, beats them, and makes an approximatly half hour video tape collage of that represents various "levels" in the game. Then the parent raters rate the game based on that collage. Do you, Goog, or anyone else think this is wrong? The people that review movies and tv shows watch them, why cant the people who review video games play them? I think there is no way you can understand the message or feelings by watching a half hour collage. Well, im done, i emailed Dr. David Walsh, the creator of this phoney system, we'll see what he says. Thanks Google.
Lurch

Googleshng:
That doesn't sound right. That would mean one particular person would have to play every single game released in this country before it hit the shelves. There's no way that would work. I'd assume they have a huge staff of players and a relatively small pool of raters. Anyway, while that doesn't explain how the deuce Parasite Eve is rated M for "Animated Violence, Mature Sexual Themes", but it DOES explain why Xenogears isn't, and why neither of those have "Animated blood and gore". I think they should just have the publishers rate'em themselves personally.

The Last Laugh:

Hmm, no quickies today it seems. How strange.

Googleshng "Mint" @rpgamer.com
Today, we're teaching poodles how to fly!


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